Join the Friends of Jockey’s Ridge for a Celebration of Carolista Baum’s Birthday! “She saved our sand dune!” On a summer morning in 1973, Carolista’s children were playing on the dunes. When they saw a bulldozer flattening out part of Jockey’s Ridge, they ran home to tell their mother. She went to investigate and found that the earth moving machine was preparing a residential development site at the base of Jockey’s Ridge, forcing her into action. She planted herself in the path of the bulldozer, forcing the operator to shut the equipment down. Carolista then founded People to Preserve Jockey’s Ridge, contacted landowners, raised money and lobbied the state. On May 31st, 1975, North Carolina listened and declared Jockey’s Ridge a State Park. Carolista’s legacy was born.